He shook his head. “What you’re asking…” He couldn’t bring himself to finish that thought aloud. She couldn’t possibly understand that if he opened that door, he couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t get hurt.
Briana forced her pulse to slow. She studied his face carefully, trusting her instincts. “You promised to keep me safe. You will. I trust you.”
She wasn’t afraid of Lucan, but even the depth of the haunting shadows in his eyes troubled her. Of all the things Rhiannon had done to Lucan, gradually stripping him of his faith in himself was the worst, and Briana could kill her for it.
But he was here now. With her. She’d waited too long to watch him walk away from her again. She’d been so careful not to think about him, as though avoiding it would somehow change things.
She’d spent months denying what she felt to her core—Lucan was her mate.
She wanted to tell him, wanted to soothe the scars she knew ran deeper than she imagined. She wanted to hear the steady beat of his heart when she fell asleep in his arms, see the lazy smile curving his mouth when she woke there.
Lifting her hands to his face, she ran her thumb across his bottom lip. “Be with me.”
His eyes slid shut. She reached up, pressed a soft, lingering kiss to each closed lid. He trembled in her arms, strong and warm and just maybe feeling the same way she was, like if they let this moment pass it would never come around again.
And she couldn’t bear the thought of that.
Sliding her palm along his jaw, she swept her mouth across his, willing him to kiss her back, to want this as much as she did.
His hands gripped her shoulders, his lips parting beneath hers—
Lucan pushed her up against the wall, his whole body pinning her in place, immobilizing her. The unexpected move rattled her feline half and left Briana off balance. Once she caught her breath and tipped her head up, her chest threatened to seize up on her again.
Pitch black eyes held her in a death stare, the intensity competing with the almost painful hold he had on her.
Lucan was gone, she realized, or at least he wasn’t the one in control.
She knew only scant details of the darkness inside him that Rhiannon had created when she turned him from a knight to a wraith. Cian had told her only that it used to be like blacking out for Lucan, though the passing centuries had given him greater control.
But how much? Would he be able to stop himself if his dark half decided to drain her of blood entirely?
Knowing she couldn’t afford to ever fear this side of him, she chose to put her faith in the man and monster that held her heart in his hands, and boldly met Lucan’s eyes. Whether he was in control or not, he needed to know she wasn’t afraid of him or the wraith.
“Every skilled predator knows you should at least show some teeth when you’re trying to scare someone.”
The feral slash of fangs he offered didn’t frighten her. Neither did the way he stared at her throat as if he could bite it clean through. Not even the cat, who’d snarled at the wraith glamour in the penthouse, seemed concerned by the predator she faced now.
Because both woman and cat were convinced he wasn’t a threat.
“You can’t scare me.”
The last word was snatched away as he spun her around, pressing up against her back and pinning her arms above her head. Limiting her range of motion might have annoyed the cat if not for the heat of his body holding her in place.
He let go of her wrists to close his hand around her throat, but didn’t squeeze.
Determined, she craned her neck to look at him over her shoulder. “Plan on using your sword next?” Maybe she was naive not to fear the wraith, but she hadn’t been lying when she told Lucan that she trusted him.
All of him—for better or worse.
A cold smile curved his lips, his dark gaze trained on her mouth. Head cocked, he drew his thumb across her cheek and then her bottom lip, as she had done.
“Do it,” she murmured, not entirely sure what she was asking. A million butterflies back-flipped in her stomach and she was sure her heart skidded to a stop when his brows crashed together.
She tipped her head, exposing her neck. Both the man and the wraith needed to know she didn’t submit as a sign of weakness, but one of trust.
Slow and possessive, his fingers trailed the path between her shoulder and her jaw. He leaned closer, his mouth hovering just below her ear, and she bit her lip, trapping her whimper inside. She refused to let a single sound shatter the moment.
Drugged by the seductive stroke of his fingers, she let her eyes close. He drew a circle around and around the thumping pulse-point below her jaw. Anticipation curled through her in silken waves, surprising her.
She’d never thought of him biting her, barely let herself think about kissing him. And now her whole body teetered on the edge of a desire so foreign and overwhelming she could barely stand still.
A shiver broke across her skin, leaving her hot and cold and every skin-tingling degree in between. Tension vibrated through his iron-clad frame and the fingers at her throat hesitated.
When she finally dragged her eyes open, she found herself staring into eyes a pure, rainforest green. He’d come back to her.
“Briana,” he whispered. He lowered his mouth to hers, working her over with such exquisite softness every nerve ending threatened to short circuit.
Seconds melted into minutes, each pass of his lips hotter, slower.
The back of his hand caressed her cheek, then he carefully turned her around, their bodies touching at every possible junction along the way. Holding her gaze, he slid his hand under her shirt.
She bit her lip when he didn’t take his time exploring, but boldly cupped her breast, his thumb circling her nipple. Already hard, the tip ached as he played and tugged before he freed her from her bra altogether. The heat of his palm made her moan, but not nearly as much as the possessive kiss he claimed a heartbeat later.
Short circuit? Her body was in full-blown overload, and Avalon help her, she was willing to go up in flames as long as he didn’t stop.
Unable to keep her hands to herself, she indulged the need to smooth her hands over the defined planes of his chest. He murmured her name against her lips as drops of rain hit his skin, beaded and trailed down to the waist of his pants.
Hypnotized, she watched the progress of those drops, blinking through wet lashes as the raindrops gave way to a shower. Neither of them moved, and his attention didn’t once waver. She’d been waiting so long for him to look at her like this—like he’d finally found what he’d been searching for.
Taking full advantage of that, she drew one nail down the middle of his chest. A glance was all it took to see how hard he was, his arousal pushing at his zipper.
His jaw tightened with the first scrape of her claw down the seam of his cargo pants, and he dropped his forehead to hers. “Have an itch you need to scratch, kitten?”
“Mmmm. All six feet of him.”
He laughed, the rough pitch betraying how easily he could surrender to the cravings she had knowingly forced him to face. “And if he bites?”
“I heal quickly.”
“Maybe I don’t.”
There was no time to interpret Lucan’s meaning. His mouth branded her skin, devouring her with a lazy, slick suction where her neck and shoulder met.
Arching into him, she found him with her hand, her fingers barely closing over the hard length of his cock before he snared her wrist.
“Maybe we should slow down and think this through.” Despite his words, he brought her hand to his mouth, pressing a wickedly hot kiss to her palm.
The ache for him deepened until it hummed under her skin. “It’s nothing we haven’t thought about before.”
